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“Down that path lies Jagang’s view of all magic. He thinks we are dangerous, and that we should be eliminated for the good of all. You seem to be siding with the emperor.”
“If a bee stings you, do you not swat it?”
“I didn’t say we shouldn’t defend ourselves.”
“Then why haven’t you defended yourselves and eliminated such threats? In the war with Darken Rahl’s father, Panis, your own people called you the wind of death. You knew how to eliminate a threat then.”
“I did what I had to do to protect innocent people who would have been slaughtered—who were being slaughtered. I will do the same against Jagang if I must. The Nangtong haven’t warranted annihilation; they don’t try to rule others through murder, torture, and enslavement. Their beliefs result in harm only if we are careless enough to intrude.”
“They’re dangerous. You should never have let the threat continue.”
He shook a finger at her. “And why haven’t you killed Nathan, to eliminate the threat he represents?”
“Would you equate Nathan with those who sacrifice people for heathen beliefs? And I can tell you that when I get my hands on Nathan again, I will set him on the right path!”
“Good. But in the meanwhile, this is a poor time to debate theology.” Zedd smoothed back his wavy hair. “Unless you wish to begin teaching the Nangtong your beliefs, I would suggest we follow mine, and remove ourselves from their hunting grounds.”
Ann sighed. “Perhaps you have a point or two. Your intentions, at least, were benevolent.”
With a shooing motion, she signaled for him to get going. Zedd followed the twisting gorge, trying to stay out of the sluggish ribbon of water running through it.
The ravine led southwest. He knew that would take them away from the Nangtong homeland. He hoped it would also conceal them while they fled. The Nangtong had spears and arrows.
When the moon came out between a break in the clouds, Zedd put out a hand to stop Ann, and squatted down to take a quick appraisal of the landscape while there was light enough for a moment. He saw little but the eight- to ten-foot-high walls of the banks and, beyond, the nearly barren hills. There were scattered copses on distant hills.
In the low valley ahead, the stream ran into a thicket of woods. Zedd turned back to tell Ann that their best bet might be to hide in the brush and woods. The Nangtong might be leery of a trap, and stay out of such a place.
The moon was still out. He saw behind them their perfect pair of tracks through the mud. He had forgotten that he couldn’t hide their trail. He pointed, so she would see them, too. She gestured with a thumb, indicating that they should get out of the muddy gully.
Twin, reed-thin screams in the distance cut through the stillness.
“The horses,” he whispered.
The screams silenced abruptly. Their throats had been cut.
“Bags! Those were good horses. Do you have anything with which to defend yourself?”
Ann flicked her wrist and brought forth a dacra. “I have this. Its magic won’t work, but I can still stab them. What do you have?”
Zedd smiled fatalistically. “My honeyed tongue.”
“Maybe we should split up, before your weapon gets me killed.”
Zedd shrugged. “I wouldn’t hold it against you if you wish to strike out alone. We have important business. Maybe it would be better if we split up to give a better chance of at least one of us making it.”
She smiled. “You just want me to miss out on all the fun. We’ll get away. We’re a goodly distance from the horses. Let’s stay together.”
Zedd squeezed her shoulder. “Maybe they only sacrifice virgins.”
“But I don’t want to die alone.”
Zedd chuckled softly as he moved on, searching for a place ahead where he could take them up and out of the ravine. He finally found a cut through the bank. Roots of gnarled bushes hung down like hair, providing handholds. The moon slid behind a thick cloud. In the inky darkness, they climbed slowly, blindly, feeling their way with their hands.
Zedd could hear a few bugs buzzing about and, in the distance, the mournful call of a coyote. Other than that, the night was still and silent. Hopefully, the Nangtong would be busy picking through Zedd and Ann’s things back with the horses.
Zedd reached the top and turned to help pull Ann up. “Stay on your hands and knees. We’ll crawl or at least crouch as we go.”
Ann whispered her agreement. She made her way atop the bank with him. They struck out, away from the gully. The bright moon came out from behind the cloud.
In a semicircle right in front of them, blocking their way, stood the Nangtong.
There were perhaps twenty of them. Zedd reasoned that there were more about nearby; Nangtong hunting parties were larger.
They were not tall, and were nearly naked, wearing only a thong and a pouch of sorts that held their manhood. Necklaces made of human finger bones hung around their necks. Heads were shaved bald. They all had sinewy arms and legs and pronounced bellies.
The Nangtong had all smeared white ash over their entire body. The area around their eyes was painted black, giving them the appearance of living skulls.
Zedd and Ann peered up at spears, their barbed, steel points glinting in the moonlight. One of the men chattered an order. Zedd didn’t understand the words, but he had a good idea of what it meant.
“Don’t use the dacra,” he whispered over to Ann. “There’s too many. They’ll kill us on the spot. Our only chance is if we can stay alive and think of something.”
He saw her slip the weapon back up her sleeve.
Zedd grinned up at the wall of grim faces. “Would any of you men happen to know where we could find the Jocopo?”
A spear jabbed at him, then signaled them to stand. He and Ann reluctantly complied. The men, not up to Zedd’s shoulders, but about as tall as Ann, crowded in around them, suddenly jabbering all at once. Men pushed and poked at them.
Their arms were pulled back and their wrists tightly bound.
“Remind me again,” Ann said to him, “about the wisdom of leaving these heathens to their unenlightened practices.”
“Well, I heard from a Confessor, once, that they are quite good cooks. Perhaps we will sample something new and delightful.”
Ann stumbled but caught herself as she was pushed on ahead. “I’m too old,” she muttered to the sky, “to be mucking about with a crazy man.”
An hour of brisk marching brought them to the Nangtong village. Broad, round tents, perhaps thirty of them, made up the mobile community. The low tents hunkered close to the ground, presenting the least possible purchase to the wind. Enclosures made of tall stick fences held a variety of livestock.
Chattering people, wrapped head to toe in unadorned cloth to hide their identities from the sacrificial offerings about to take their prayers to the spirit world, turned out to watch Zedd and Ann being prodded at spearpoint through the village. Their captors, covered in the white ash and with their eyes painted black, were hunters in the guise of the dead, so there would be no danger of their being recognized as one of the still living.
Zedd was jerked to a halt before a pen while men undid the rope tie at the gate. The gate swung open in the moonlight. It seemed that the whole Nangtong village had followed behind. They hooted and hollered as the two prisoners were hustled through the gate, apparently wanting to give messages to the two spirits about to go speak on the Nangtongs’ behalf to their ancestors.
Zedd and Ann, their wrists still bound behind their backs, both fell when they were forcefully shoved into the pen. It was a muddy landing. Snorting shapes loped away. The pen was occupied by pigs. The way they had churned the ground into a quagmire, the village must have occupied this place for at least the past few months. It smelled like what it was.
The spirit hunting party, nearly fifty, as Zedd had guessed, split up. Some went back to tents, surrounded by gleeful children and stoic women. Others of the hunters encircled the pen to
stand guard. Most of the people who stood around watching were calling out to the prisoners, giving their messages for the spirit world.
“Why are you doing this?” Zedd called to their guards. He nodded his head and inclined it toward Ann. “Why?” He shrugged.
One of the guards seemed to understand. He made a cutting gesture across his throat, and then indicated the imaginary blood running from the pretend wound. With his spear, he pointed at the moon.
“Blood moon?” Ann asked under her breath.
“Red moon,” Zedd whispered in realization. “The last I’d heard, the Confessors had secured a pledge from the Nangtong that they would no longer sacrifice people. I was never sure if they held to their promise. Just the same, people stayed away.
“The red moon must have frightened them, made them think the spirit world was angry. That’s probably why we’re to be sacrificed: to placate the angry spirits.”
Ann squirmed uncomfortably in the mud beside him. She gave Zedd a murderous look.
“I only pray that Nathan’s situation is worse than ours.”
“What was it you said,” Zedd asked absently, “about mucking about with a crazy man?”
